


The Prince of Puppets: Forbidden Freedom

by RogueOfBrokenTime



Series: The Prince of Puppets [2]
Category: Sean McLoughlin - Fandom, jacksepticeye, jacksepticeye egos - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Fantasy, Gen, No Romance, No Sex, No Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:53:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 16,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24947185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RogueOfBrokenTime/pseuds/RogueOfBrokenTime
Summary: After assuming his place of ruling over Posmea, Jack still feels like there's something missing... and there is. When his darker half makes a reappearance, everything changes for him yet again as a new adventure is born...
Series: The Prince of Puppets [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805509
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	1. Prologue: The Place Beyond

Once upon another time, beneath an orange sky bleeding with red clouds, sat a great, dark cave in an even greater, darker mountain, home to a beast only whispered of in the oldest tales and legends.

It was a guardian being, older than time, a defender of balance and order. Any who dared to seek out this entity without the right reasons in their heart would vanish on the journey, never to be seen again, for it lived in a place beyond the farthest reaches of the world, guarding the one weapon it had been entrusted with at the very beginning…

It was a blade unlike any other. Forged in its very guardian’s dragonfire, it contained within it a hatred that was said to be able to corrupt even the souls of the beings who contained the brightest light within them. Without the sword, the beast would turn to darkness and unleash its rage upon the world until the balance was set right again. This, of course, must never be– so the dragon watched over the sword, day and night, never to let it out of sight. Eventually, most of the human world forgot both the blade’s and the serpent’s existence, but the protector of the sword remained, watching over all things as eons passed.

This was the way of things, until one fateful day…

—

Sensing an imbalance in light and darkness, the beast grew agitated. Something had slipped through its barrier protecting this place from the morally corrupt, and this greatly disturbed the dragon. Using its senses, it discerned that this being that had infiltrated its defenses was neither human nor spirit, but some shattered combination of both…

Fast as lightning and just as dark as it is bright, a green shadow sped across the ground and billowed upward in a swell of virescent smoke, taking the shape of its master. As he briefly stood before the opening, he laughed, both his sinister smile and his cunning plans bared.

In a mere moment and with a snap of his fingers, he melted into emerald smoke again and swept through the cave, instantly finding what he needed and vanishing with the wind.

As he dissipated, the great serpent let out an unearthly hiss and began shakily pulling itself out of its cave, crawling up the mountain with its several pairs of legs as the turning began. Its scales transitioning from pure white to purplish-black one by one, the beast writhed in pain, its golden eyes the only parts of it not to be corrupted by the change.

By the time it was complete, the dragon had reached the peak of its mountain, releasing a howl that shook the very earth to its core, echoing across the lands even beyond the barrier to the world of humans.

On the other side, a deep, low rumble rippled throughout the lands of the kingdom of Posmea, falling ultimately on the senses of a prince sealed behind the glass of a magical mirror… and the prince with whom our story continues.


	2. A Shadow Falls

A soft, pulsating beat echoes through my whole body, catching me off-guard. As I freeze in my footsteps, I can feel the air being pushed from my lungs, and the faint sound of what sounds like some kind of howl rings in my ears for a moment, but only for a moment.

Raising a hand to my chest, my gaze falls to the shimmering ground beneath my feet, and I find myself briefly losing my balance, swaying…

I shake my head a little as I catch my breath, looking up to see the mirror’s window just before me. The sanctum beyond seems peaceful, the curtains flowing with a breeze I’ll never feel again.

I can barely describe what it’s like here. It’s as if I’m on the other side of reality– I can only see the world I once knew through someone else’s eyes. I’ve walked through my people’s wildest dreams and innermost thoughts, bringing ease to both, with nothing more than an abstract feeling in one’s heart to let someone know I’m with them in a given moment. Very rarely can I bring myself to manipulate what someone is feeling or thinking, if only to make them smile again or to give them hope when they have none.

In the time that I’ve spent here, I’ve seen to it that everything in Posmea has been set right. Marvin found his way back to Prosperus. Chase was reunited with his family. Henrik was forgiven. Sam and the members of the Hollow have never known times of such peace. Jameson got his voice back. Everyone who had ever fallen under my other half’s trance was let go, and let to live their lives again.

I’ve done all that I can to ensure that things are as they should be.

So what could possibly be wrong…?

—

I feel the presence of my parents come up behind me, and the king– my father– rests his heavy hand on my shoulder.

“My son…” No matter how much time I’ve spent here, I’m not sure I’ll ever be used to him calling me his own. “What is it that troubles you?”

I sigh, turning around to both of them.

“Everything… everything should be perfectly fine. I’ve made sure of it,” I say quietly, more to myself than them. Then I shake my head a little again, turning back to the glass barrier I’ll never be able to leave. “So why does it feel like there’s something terrible going on out there?”

At this, my parents look to each other with worry written in their gazes, then, breaking away, the queen steps closer to me.

“Seán…” she says to me in a low, soft, gentle voice, holding my cheek in her hand with a mother’s touch and giving me a proud, but sad smile. “There is… something you must know, and we believe you are ready to know it now.”

My eyebrows slowly furrow as I look to them both, and my father blinks and nods in agreement.

“Loinnir, your blade…” she goes on, gesturing to where it’s sheathed at my side. “There was a reason we had it forged for you, back when you were born. And up until now, you’ve believed that reason to be for the feat you’ve already accomplished– driving the dark force from the mirror, never to have it rule over the kingdom again.”

I turn my head slightly, my eyes a little bit wide in disbelief. “That's… that’s _not_ what it was for?”

“That… was not its original purpose, no,” the king tells me, and I can tell that whatever they want to share with me has not been easy to hide, nor is easy to tell me now.

“Then… why did you have it forged?” I can’t help but ask, looking to each of them again.

“Seán, the truth is–”

My answer is cut off by the light all around us suddenly growing very dim, the shadows swallowing them without warning. Taken by surprise, I reach out my hand, but my fingers meet nothing in the darkness.

Fear beginning to take its place in my chest, I start backing up toward the only remaining source of light– the mirror on the wall, the border back to the world I’ll never be part of again.

The shadows follow me step for step. I can’t shake the sensation of the space getting smaller and smaller around me– the edge chases me slowly until I stumble and fall to the floor, and I scramble back up as quickly as I can so that I’m not enveloped, too.

My back hits the glass, and the darkness stops its pursuit, but not before a strange, mocking voice rings in my ears and resonates through my whole body…

_Mirror, mirror, on the wall…_

My eyes widen as I recognize a sickeningly familiar laugh that sounds all too much like my own.

_… who’s the savior of them all?_


	3. Mirror, Mirror

I’m frozen in place, my back pressed on the mirror’s surface…

_Come on, now,_ the voice taunts. _Show me who you are._

My fingers brush Loinnir’s hilt briefly as I slowly turn around to see…

My heart pounds in my ears as he comes into view.

“Well, well, well…” my other half says quietly to me. “This is certainly a turn of the tides, isn’t it, Jack?”

—

All I can do is shake my head as my eyes widen even more.

“How…?” I stammer softly.

He laughs. “Your body wasn’t fully dead when you took my place in there, you know. I have to say, it’s served me quite well.”

I exhale shakily. “M-my body… you… you stole it?”

At this, he only grins. “I did warn you I’d come back. You didn’t think I’d keep my word, did you?”

He looks down to his side and begins to unsheathe his weapon. It’s a blade unlike anything I’ve ever seen– it’s pitch black, not even reflecting the sunlight off itself. And there’s a strange aura coming off of it… I can feel it from here. Just being near it chills me to my core…

As he reveals it, he turns his glowing green gaze back up to me, his eyes sharp like daggers…

Then, with a swift flourish that I would almost call graceful, the tip of his sword meets the glass at my chest and rests there. As it does, I can almost feel my life force being drained from all around me, and from inside me…

“So tell me, Jack…” he finishes, his sinister smile spreading even farther. “Are you ready, like you said you’d be?”

I swallow. I still feel like I can barely move, but my fingertips instinctively start reaching for Loinnir again…

“I’m afraid that won’t do you much good from in there.” His quiet chuckle haunts the edges of his words. “You knew when you decided to take my place– one way in, no way out. That was the price you paid… and you _still_ didn’t win.”

My eyebrows start to narrow. “What are you going to do to me? You’ve had your turn already.”

“What am _I_ going to do?” he asks laughingly, beginning to pull his sword back toward himself.

Then his eyes flare, and the corners of his mouth turn down into the hardest expression I’ve ever seen. Lowering his body into a ready position, he huffs his answer.

_“I’m going to end you, once and for all.”_

Then, without giving me even half a moment to think about his words, he swings his dark blade at me with all his might–

All at once, the world on my side of the mirror lights up, brighter than the sun. For a moment I see my birth parents reach out to me, trying to call to me… then they vanish into dust, fading from sight.

Before I can question it, a crackling pain like nothing I’ve ever known ripples through my entire being, and I look down at my arms to see my own skin breaking like glass bit by bit, the cracks spreading rapidly through my body as the shattered mirror before me assumes the same patterns.

Along with the sensation of falling forward, the last thing I remember seeing is a distorted version of his smiling face, and my last brief moment of consciousness before the light consumes me is spent wondering if all is lost.

—

_Seán…_

Swimming in the midst of black space and white noise, I finally sense air…

_Seán, breathe…_

I struggle and fight my way upward through the darkness, but something keeps trying to pull me back down…

My fingers finally break the surface–

_Seán!_

Suddenly my eyes flash open, and I find myself gasping for each breath.

The blur clearing from my vision after a few moments, I find it in me to gradually find my strength…

Slowly I pull my outstretched hand back toward me, using the other arm to try to support me where I’m laying on the ground. Pushing myself up, I bring one knee below me, then the other, my body feeling heavier than it’s ever felt…

I look down to my side and see that Loinnir is laying beside me, and just beyond its shimmering hilt, something else glints in the light of the sun, catching my eye…

Kneeling now, I carefully bring one foot to the ground, eventually following with the other and standing myself up…

Stumbling on new legs, I turn myself around and am greeted with a sight I’d never imagined possible:

The frame of the mirror on the wall, broken and empty.

It’s now that recent events flood my memory. My opposite, revealing himself to me once more in my stolen body, the situation reversed– him, smashing the mirror with me inside of it–

A pound from inside my chest echoes in my ears, but it feels foreign, not like the pulse of a heartbeat.

I'm… _I’m outside the mirror again._

Panic energy floods through me, and suddenly I feel much lighter on my feet as I helplessly find my head spinning.

How? How had he done it? He’d stolen my body to make sure I could never walk on the other side again, and yet here I am– how am I even standing here?

_Seán._

I freeze in place. That… that sounded like my parents’ voices layered together, whispering in my ears…

As I stop, my gaze drops to where Loinnir is on the floor once more, and the glare of reflected sunlight takes my attention again…

Falling to my knees again, I reach down and shakily take the small shard into my hands. It's… it’s a piece of the magic mirror if I’ve ever seen one. I can’t help but wonder where the rest of it went…

_Seán… you must… get help,_ the voices of the king and queen say to me, then I feel their presences disappear from either side of me…

Help… yes, I need that… but who could help me now?

Holding the glass shard firmly in my left hand and picking up Loinnir with my right and sheathing it at my side again, my thoughts begin to wander…

I’m clearly dealing with powerful magic here, and I only know two people who could help me on that front– Prosperus and Marvin. But the question of how I get there remains; I’m in the sanctum of the highest tower of the castle. How am I supposed to find my way back to them from here?

As the thought passes through my mind, I feel something strange beginning to happen at my core– a fleeting, light feeling comes through me, and my eyes slowly close as my body rises up…


	4. Reunited

The first thing to greet me as my senses come back to me is the sound of heavily falling rain.

The second, the feeling of water droplets landing on my coat, seeping into the fabric where it meets my skin.

All the rest comes on three.

I suddenly stumble on my feet as my eyes flutter open rapidly.

What just happened?

As I quickly look to my surroundings, lightning flashes in the sky above me, catching me off-guard. Without thinking, I run up to the wall of the nearest structure– the small shop that was the first thing I saw in front of me when my eyes opened.

I take a moment to look down and try to catch my breath, but the more I think, the harder it is to slow myself down…

I don’t know where I am and I don’t know how I got here. I’m about as lost as I could be, and on top of that, somehow, I’m outside the mirror again when I was told nothing could bring me back.

My eyes close as my chest continues to rise and fall. None of this was meant to be… how can I set things right again?–

“J-Jack?” a familiar voice suddenly asks in awe, taking my attention from my whirling thoughts.

I blink and look to my side, my eyes widening as I recognize the shape of the person before me…

He peeks into the dim light of the storm, one of his snowy white cat ears perking up as he sees me fully.

I let out a breath of relief as I realize where I must be.

“Marv,” I say to him quietly, mustering up a tiny smile for him.

Thunder booms overhead again, and we both flinch as the moment is broken.

“Is…” he stammers, almost seeming hesitant to come closer to me. “Is it actually you?”

I nod, and then I swallow.

“Marv… I need your help.”

—

After taking my hand and pulling me inside the shop, I hear him let out another breath, then he turns to me again.

“I… I don’t get it,” he murmurs, running his hands through his hair. “How are you _here?”_

“Trust me, I don’t know either,” I answer, shaking my head a little, but giving him a look to say I’ll tell him all I do know later.

As I meet his eyes in the soft light, I can see how much he’s changed since I last saw him in person. No longer is he the jittery, non-assured boy I once knew– he’s much more confident in his abilities now, but along with that, he’s seen things that he doesn’t dare speak of, lest they become real…

And I can see the conflict in him. On one hand, he’s relieved, even overjoyed to see me again– but on the other, he fears that something terrible must’ve happened to bring me here.

Before I can say anything, though, he runs back up to me and takes me in an embrace, resting the side of his face on my chest.

“Jack… I’m sorry,” I hear him say quietly, his voice muffled in my coat, and I instantly know what he’s apologizing for.

We never really got to say goodbye.

My eyes closing, I put my arms around him and lower my chin.

“Hey, it’s alright, Marv,” I tell him gently. “It’s gonna be alright.”

Before the moment can last very long, I hear quick, careful footsteps making their way downstairs toward us…

“Marvin, who are you speaking with?–”

We both turn to the door on the opposite side of the room, and Prosperus emerges from the staircase, freezing momentarily when he sees me.

As he lowers himself down the final stair and takes a few more slow steps forward, I see that I’ve left even him in awe– but not in a good way.

“Jack…?” he asks quietly. “Can it truly be you?”

I step around Marvin and approach him, nodding.

“It’s me,” I tell him, and I show him where Loinnir rests at my side prove it.

He takes me gently by the wrist with both his hands, bidding me open my fist. I do so, revealing the last piece of the mirror to him and meeting his dark eyes with worry.

“So it is true,” I hear him say silently. “The balance of the land has been broken once again.”

—

I can only watch Prosperus handle the shard as carefully as he can from where I sit next to him at his table. Marvin stands on his other side, his eyes glued to the glass like mine are.

“Analyzing this piece fully may take some time,” the master tells us, looking to each of us in turn. “I do believe I could learn more from this, if only we knew where the rest of the mirror had gone…”

Then he looks back down at the shard in his hand and raises an eyebrow as if he has an idea.

“Let us see what this piece of it remembers. Perhaps it can tell us where to find the rest.”

He holds it in his palm, then closes his eyes and waves his other hand over it slowly, and it begins to glow a faint sky blue. Letting out a focused breath, he blinks his eyes open again gradually, and then…

A small beam of light shoots from the shard… directly at me.

Instantly my eyebrows narrow, and I shake my head a little. “Wait… what?”

As the beam retreats, both of my companions look to me, and Prosperus sets the glass down and rises to his feet.

“Jack…” he says to me, taking my hand again. I meet his gaze. “By any standard of magical practice– even forbidden magic– returning to this world should not have been possible for you. And yet…”

He uses his free hand to pull the sleeve of my coat up my arm, then he closes his eyes once more, facing his palm down toward my wrist this time, and…

Revealed in his light are strange patterns on my skin, glowing with the same blue that the shard was only a few moments ago. As he waves his hand up and down my arm, more and more come into view…

My eyes wide now, I look back up to Prosperus, who’s smiling at me now.

“And yet, it seems you’ve found a way.”


	5. The Mosaic

At first, I don’t understand what he’s talking about. Then I look down to my arm again, and…

The lines Prosperus revealed begin glowing even brighter than before, crawling down to my elbow and up through my fingers. It’s as if–

My eyes go wide as I realize.

_It’s as if my body was shattered like glass and put back together again._

All at once, the swift memory replays in my head– how, when my darker half broke the mirror, my entire being broke with it.

That means…

“I still don’t get it,” Marvin says quietly, almost nervously, coming up to us. “Why did it point at Jack? What happened to the rest of the mirror?”

Suddenly feeling a strange surge of power welling up inside me, I turn to him.

“Marv…” I answer even softer, not sure how to process the information I’m about to say myself. “I think I _am_ the rest of the mirror.”

—

Another foreign-feeling thud happens in my chest as I say the words, and somehow, I know I’m right.

“But… how?” the boy goes on, rightfully confused. “I’ve done my research on magic mirrors. It… it shouldn’t be possible for him to be standing here.”

“My apprentice, I do not doubt your knowledge,” Prosperus tells him gently, turning his way. “I know how devoted you have been to your studies as of late. However, there is one thing you are forgetting…”

The master then looks back to me.

“You forget that this is no longer the Jack you once knew.”

My eyebrows go up. “What?”

“Jack,” Prosperus says quickly, easing my nervousness by taking my hand again. “Tell me… how did you arrive at this place?”

My gaze falls as I try to think.

“I… I don’t know,” I answer honestly, pressing my eyes closed. The memory is hazy now. “I was… in the sanctum at first, but then… I realized I needed help, and… I thought of you two. The next thing I knew, I was standing outside in the rain.”

The two of them look to each other briefly, then back at me– Prosperus’s eyes very serious, Marvin’s full of wonder.

“You projected yourself all the way here?” the boy asks me in awe. “That's… incredible!”

“Indeed, it is no small feat,” his mentor tells me, turning back to Marvin. “Do you see now, my apprentice? The mirror is not gone– it has simply assumed a new form. And the magic within it has taken residence in…”

“Me,” I finish for him, looking down to my hands again.

My head is spinning again. I don’t doubt what Prosperus is saying in the least, and yet… it’s still so much to take in. Am I really not myself anymore?

The weight of his hand coming down on my shoulder brings me back.

“Do not be afraid, Jack,” he says to me, taking my attention again. “You are now… something of a mosaic of your former self, but that does not mean your entire former self is lost. It has simply been augmented. And I sense that the sooner you accept this truth, the easier it will be for you to come into your new power.”

After a moment, I take a breath and nod. “Alright.”

—

Once night comes, Marvin shows me back down to the lower chambers, where we spent the first night of my journey all that time ago. The smell of old books is prominent, along with scents I can’t even name that must be the result of him making his elixirs.

I follow him towards the back of the room where his desk is, when he slows down and finally stops in his steps, not even turning around to face me while he starts talking.

“I… I’ve spent a lot of time down here studying ever since… y'know,” he tells me quietly, his ears drooping. “It’s dumb, but… I was just so desperate to know if there was any way to bring you back.”

“Marv…” I start, coming closer, but he stops me by turning around and looking up to me.

“I guess even magic mirrors have their loopholes though, huh?” he asks, giving me a little smile as his ears perk back up.

My own grin starts returning to me.

“Why would you do that?” I can’t help but ask him with a bit of a laugh. “You must’ve known there was no way.”

His gaze falls, and he wrings his fingers a little.

“You're… the closest thing to a brother I’ve ever had,” he finally tells me. “After everything we’ve been through… I hated the thought of losing you.”

Silence reigns over us for a moment. I can’t think of anything to say– he’s been without me all this time, yet I’ve still been with him. It’s a sensation I can barely explain…

After the moment passes, Marvin raises one of his hands and scratches the back of his head briefly, finally meeting my eyes again.

“So…” he starts, his old smile coming back. “Do you still feel like… you, amidst all this?”

I blink a few times, trying to assess.

“I… think so,” I answer in a lower voice, furrowing my eyebrows. “Mostly, anyway.”

“‘Mostly’?” he asks, turning his head to one side. “What does that mean?”

“It's… strange, really,” I try to explain. “I don’t feel the need to eat or drink or sleep. I’m not sure I could even do any of those things if I tried.”

“Interesting…” he murmurs to himself, his eyes narrow with curiosity. “So… you’ve lost some aspects of your humanity to account for what the mirror gave you in return?”

I shrug a little. “I just wish I knew what exactly it gave me to begin with.”

The corner of his mouth turns up again.

“That, I think I can help you with,” he tells me, giving me a nod to tell me to follow him.

He leads me around his desk, bidding me sit beside him. On it I see countless sheets that must’ve been torn from his notebooks– most filled with scribbles of notes, some covered with sketches in different colors. Just looking at them, I’m awed by how much is here…

“This might be what you’re looking for,” he says to me softly, passing me one of his drawings.

Taking it gently into my hands, I bring it closer, reading the tiny writing on the side of the page that he must’ve copied from one of his books…

_“Not much is known for sure about the nature of the power of magical mirrors. All that we do know, we have learned from their inhabitants– whether through dreams or demonstrations– and even then, it is difficult to know for sure whether those things are true. In this text, we list the abilities that have coincided in many tales told by those who have witnessed the receiving end of this mysterious magic firsthand: the ability see into others’ minds, to walk in others’ dreams, to see or even project oneself or another person to another place or even another time… there are more accounts, but these remain the most prominent across them all.”_

“Woah,” I say to myself, shaking my head a little.

“I’ve cross-referenced every book I could find about it, and they all say the same things,” Marvin goes on, looking over more of his notes. “Not that there’s much to find on the subject, but…”

His sentence is cut off by him fighting to suppress a yawn.

I pat him on the shoulder, and he turns to me.

“Hey, thank you,” I tell him genuinely, almost laughing again. “I can look over this myself tonight. You should get some rest. You need it.”

He smiles back at me. “Don’t push yourself too hard, okay?”

Standing himself up again, he nudges more of his pages closer to me on the table, then gives me a nod.

“See you in the morning, Jack,” he tells me quietly, then he makes his way over to the hidden door in the bookshelf across from us, disappearing into the darkness.

As he goes, I turn back to what lays before me on his desk, lit by the dim candlelight. Something else catches my eye– another passage that must have been taken from one of his books.

Pulling the sheet closer to me, I begin to read…

_“Becoming an inhabitant of a magical mirror is usually the result of a curse, as once you enter one, you may never leave it again. Very few mages have ever placed themselves inside of one, if only to learn for themselves what power may come with such sacrifice. Fewer still were those who had the strength to reach outward to inform others about what lies beyond our reality through the power of dreams, before that same strength caused their mirror to be broken from the inside. There are no known accounts of an inhabitant spirit’s survival upon a mirror’s breaking, and it is widely thought that this is why these mirrors are the subjects of such curses– for even in the inhabitant’s death, there is no freedom from their glass prison, causing their soul, upon its breaking, to be lost to the world beyond and shattered for ever.”_

If I had any doubt left in my mind, this would’ve erased it.

I should not have survived. My spirit should’ve stayed broken into hundreds of pieces, and I should’ve stayed forever shattered and lost behind the world of the glass.

But… for some reason, somehow… in that moment, I refused.


	6. Dark Visions

I spend all night looking over Marvin’s notes and sketches for anything more that could help me, but the one phrase that haunts me the most stays in the back of my mind and won’t leave me alone…

_There are no known accounts of an inhabitant spirit’s survival upon a mirror’s breaking._

After mindlessly shuffling through all the pages one more time, I sit back and close my eyes. Faint echoes of what it felt like to be tired stir within me, but they have no power over me anymore– I know that even if I try to sleep, I won’t be able to.

I drop my chin and rub my eyes a bit, then scoot the chair back up to the desk. Surely there must be something here that I’ve missed…

—

Hours pass in darkness, and still I find no better lead than the first. Most of these pages only have information gleaned in passing on them– mentions of people inhabiting mirrors, how glass can be enchanted to hold the soul of a person inside of it. Almost nothing but the original passage Marvin showed me mentions what power could be obtained from having been inside one, and the other ones that do have only inaccurate theories, nothing concrete.

Finally I sigh and drop back again, giving up.

I just hope that whatever power I do have will be enough…

My thought is interrupted by the sound of a squeaking door opening and shutting again. I look to my left and see the bookcase closing, but nobody coming out– at least, nobody I can see…

But within moments, I have my answer. Peeking out from the aisles of books is Marvin in his cat form, and once I see him, he trots up to me.

I can’t help but smile a little as I greet him. “Hey.”

He turns his head to one side and blinks, as if to ask me if I found anything…

“Not really, no,” I answer with another small sigh. “Looks like our first lead was the best bet.”

After a few seconds, Marvin lowers himself, then hops up onto my lap, then onto the desk, picking his way over the papers toward a stack of his notebooks.

I shake my head a little. “What are you doing?”

Sitting on his hind legs and putting one of his front paws on the top one, he looks back at me…

Slowly I take the book into my hands and open it to the first few pages.

I narrow my eyes at first.

“Marv, I don’t get it,” I say to him, skimming over the contents. “This is about–”

I turn one more page, and I’m cut off.

In the small notebook I’m holding are sketches of swords, emanating both light and dark power, as if they were…

I let out a small breath and finish my thought.

_“… enchanted weapons.”_

In all of this discussion of me being brought back from the brink, I forgot a crucial detail:

It was no ordinary sword that shattered the mirror.

—

“You’re sure that it was enchanted?”

I nod. “More than anything. I could feel its power just being near it.”

Prosperus and Marvin stand on either side of me, opening various books to certain pages that show me different swords and blades, the likes of which I’ve never seen.

As I look to each one, I wrack my memory, but none of them look quite like the one my opposite half used to break the glass.

“Can you describe it for us, Jack?” Prosperus asks me gently, putting his hand on my shoulder.

I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and try to recall exactly what it looked like…

“It… the blade was black, and it seemed to radiate darkness,” I say softly, bringing the image back into view. “I couldn’t see the hilt very well, but just being close to it, I could feel it draining the life force from me.”

As I open my eyes again, I see the two of them look to each other. I can read from their expressions that what I said doesn’t seem to match any record of weapon they have here…

“A sword that drains your life force?” Marvin asks quietly, mostly to himself. “I’ve never heard of any weapon powerful enough to do that.”

A moment passes, then suddenly, Prosperus’s eyes widen slightly.

“No…” I hear him murmur as he turns away and goes quickly to a nearby bookshelf. “It mustn’t be…”

Exchanging a quick glance with Marvin, we follow him, and he pulls a massive, dark, nameless tome off the shelf, then comes back to the desk we were just standing around and sets it down.

Handling it with the utmost care, he opens the cover, and already I can tell that this huge book holds our answer.

Going about midway through the pages, he gently pulls the rest of it open, and…

Another strange pound happens in my chest as my eyes take in the pages. They’re adorned with ancient runic text, but I don’t need to know what it says in order to understand the illustration that takes up the rest of the space…

It’s a depiction of a beast unlike anything I’ve ever seen– it has a long, serpent-like body with a few pairs of short legs, and on its head are two great curling horns. It sits perched on what looks like the top of a mountain, and it’s shown breathing fire into the sky…

And sitting at the mountain’s base, resting in what looks like a cave… is a sword drawn in black.

“That’s it,” I find myself saying in a low voice, somehow never more sure of anything in my life. “That’s the one.”

Prosperus closes his eyes and drops his head down.

“‘The balance of the land is broken once again'…” he mutters, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so uncertain. “Is this truly what it means?”

Marvin, looking afraid more than anything, shakes his head and looks up to him.

“What does… what mean?” he asks his mentor quietly, his ears beginning to turn down.

The master sighs slowly.

“I had a strange dream before Jack arrived to us,” he begins, not looking to either one of us. “One I feel may have been prophetic. A mysterious voice told me that 'the balance of the land is broken once again’. Until now, I have had no idea as to what it could’ve meant. But… I could never have dreamt of an imbalance of this scale.”

His eyes fall on the ancient drawing once again, his fingers brushing over the dried ink.

“This sword was said to be guarded by a dragon older than time itself– back when people believed in such things,” he continues softly. “And it was said that the blade contained within it a hatred so powerful, it could make its enemy’s blood run colder than ice and drain the life of those it struck down. There are many interpretations of what was done with it, but the most common is that it was sealed away beyond the edges of the world so that no one person could ever wield such dangerous and forbidden power.”

Taking one more breath, Prosperus finishes.

“It says here that the people of the ancient times named the blade 'Scáth’, meaning 'shadow’, and that it must never be separated from its guardian, lest the beast lose control of its power and rampage upon the earth.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Marvin starting to quickly shake his head.

“But… but dragons are only legends,” he stammers. “We’ve never found any evidence of them. And this story is ancient– who’s to say if any of these things actually existed, or if they only existed in someone’s imagination?”

The two of them carry on the conversation while I stay silent, my gaze fixed on the pages of the tome. As my eyes fall on the sword, my fingers brush past where Loinnir rests at my hip…

_Scáth…_

I jump in place a little as the whispering voices of the king and queen return to either side of me. It… it sounds like they’re straining to reach my ears…

_Loinnir was forged… to combat Scáth…_

As the words form a cohesive phrase, my eyes go wide.

This is what my parents were trying to tell me about Loinnir, before–

“Jack?” Marvin’s voice says to me suddenly, jolting me back to the moment. I look up. “Are… are you alright?”

I let out a short breath, then give my answer.

“I think we’re about to go on another adventure, Marv.”


	7. The Next Journey

“What?” Marvin asks, raising his eyebrows and perking his ears at my certainty.

Finding a spare sheet of thin paper, I place it gently over the depiction in the tome, tracing over the drawing of the dragon’s mountain as best I can.

“I know this is the sword. I can feel it,” I say in a low voice, not looking up from my work. “We have to find it. That’s how we find _him.”_

“‘Him’?” the boy goes on, not knowing who I’m talking about at first, then realizing, his multicolored eyes going wide. “You mean _he’s_ out there somewhere too?”

Finally done, I look over my sketch, fold up the paper, then turn to him and nod. “I have to stop him. Who knows what he’ll do if I don’t?”

—

As I watch Marvin pack his satchel and help him prepare, my actions are haunted by the thought of my other half being free, somewhere out there…

Gripping my folded drawing in my pocket, I shake my head and try to think of something else.

“So…” I start, desperate for conversation. “You don’t believe in dragons, then?”

“Well, it depends.” The boy turns to me and gives me a pensive look. “Do I believe they were in thousands of legends, spanning across time? Yes. Do I believe they actually ever existed? No.”

I narrow my eyes a small bit, my interest piqued. “What makes you so sure?”

He shrugs, looking back down to his supplies. “I believe that people in ancient times saw things that they couldn’t explain, and that they chalked them up to the actions of mythical beings. These things could’ve been natural, in their imaginations, or even magical events– but we’ve seen no real evidence of actual, living dragons, ever. Not on any record I’ve seen, anyway.”

“Huh,” I say softly, more to myself than him. “I guess you have a point there.”

“What about you?” he asks, turning the question back on me.

“Me?” I pause what I’m doing, shaking my head. “I… don’t know. I’ve never thought about it.”

As he finishes packing and closes the bag up, he turns back to me, this time with a new glimmer in his eyes.

“Well, I guess we’re gonna find out in one way or another,” he finishes, giving me a bit of a smile and slinging his satchel over his shoulder. “Let’s get going, shall we?”

I furrow my eyebrows a bit. “Going where, exactly? I don’t even know where to begin looking for information on that sword.”

At this, Marv laughs a little. “I do. Where else would we go than the place you got yours in the first place?”

As he says the words, it clicks. Of course– Sam knew all about Loinnir when he first gave it to me. Maybe he’d know about it’s darker counterpart as well…

“Back to the Hollow, then?” I ask him, remembering something. “Wait, do you remember how to get there?”

“Sure I do,” he answers nonchalantly. “I’ve been there a few times since you… left.”

I find myself looking at him again, almost proudly. Before we met, he’d never have had the guts to go on adventures of his own like this. He really has grown, hasn’t he?

I can’t help but wonder if I had anything to do with the change in him…

Letting out a satisfied sigh, he meets my eyes again. “Well? Are you ready for the next journey, Jack?”

I give him a firm nod, and we head back upstairs.

—

Prosperus takes our hands into his as he prepares to bid us farewell.

“Do be safe in your travels,” he tells us, then he looks to each of us in turn– Marvin first. “My apprentice, I have a new faith in your abilities. You have grown much as of late, and I trust you will be a strong ally to Jack on his quest. All I ask is that you return to me once your journey is over, so that we may finish your studies.”

The glow in the boy’s eyes tells me he wasn’t expecting that– I can’t help but grin a little.

“Jack,” he goes on, turning to me. “Do not forget that you carry great power now, even greater than you did when we first met. May it serve you well, and may you use it to its fullest potential in your times of greatest need.”

I nod, finding the beginnings of a smile on his face.

As he finishes, though, a knock comes at the front door of the shop, taking all of our attention…

Before I can ask, a voice comes from the other side.

“Marvin? Are you here? Oh, I do hope I’m not interrupting anything…”

Recognizing the speaker, the boy rushes up to the front window to see who’s out there, then proceeds to open the door to reveal…

“JJ…?” he asks with a laugh as the man turns around. “What are you doing here?”

They exchange a quick embrace, then the man conveys his message.

“An urgent message from the Hollow, I’m afraid. Sam requests your presence as soon as possible. Oh, it’s simply dreadful what’s happened there!”

Upon hearing this, I can’t help but interrupt.

“Wait, what?” I come a bit closer to Marvin. “What happened to the Hollow?”

I freeze in my footsteps as I finally recognize the stranger before me– in fact, he’s not a stranger at all.

Sir Jameson Jackson’s eyes light up as he, too, recognizes me.

“Jack?” he asks in awe. “Why– it _is_ you!”

I nod, unable to suppress my own wonder.

“Jameson…” I greet him with a smile. “I think this is the first time I’ve ever heard you speak.”

After a pause, his gaze falls, and his own grin makes its way onto his face.

“I suppose it is, isn’t it?” he says quietly before looking back up to me. “I must say, this is much better than that silly old notepad I used before you…”

As he says the words, his eyebrows begin to furrow, and the corners of his mouth turn down again. His expression turning to one of confusion, he drops his gaze once more, then turns up to me again, concern glittering in his eyes.

“… wait, how exactly are you here?” he finally asks.

I can’t say I didn’t know that was coming.

“It's… kind of a long story. I’ll explain later,” I tell him, giving him a nod. “But, back to why you’re here– what happened to the Hollow?”

At this, he remembers his purpose.

“Oh– yes! Sam sent me here to fetch Marvin. He’s afraid that something’s gone wrong with the magic barrier, and he’d like Marvin to come and see it for himself.”

Upon hearing this, the boy nods earnestly. “Sam’s done so much for me– it’s the least I can do for him. And, actually, Jack and I were just planning on setting out that way. There’s something we’d like to ask him about, too.”

“So you’ll come? Both of you? Wonderful! I’m sure Sam would love nothing more,” Jameson tells us eagerly, looking to each one of us. “Shall we set off then? I do believe we could make it there before nightfall if we hurry.”

I look back to Prosperus one more time, and he gives me a nod. I smile, then turn back to our visitor.

“Let’s head out.”


	8. Foreboding

We make good speed on our way towards the Hollow. My fingers playing with my folded drawing in my pocket, I do my best to see if there’s a time in our conversation to bring it up, but the moment never comes.

However, we do come to the topic of my sword, which gets me curious…

“Jameson,” I start as we make our way through the woods, and he turns to me. “You know some things about Loinnir, right? Is there anything you can tell us about it now that you couldn’t before?”

He pauses in his steps, twiddling his fingers over his mustache as he thinks.

“I do remember hearing a certain story about it, when I was quite young,” he tells me. “Forgive me– I can only tell it as well as my memory serves.”

We all find ourselves stopping. I nod to him, and Marvin does too.

With a quick sigh, he begins.

“When I was just a boy– to say, before the prince was born– I heard tales of a sword of light being forged for him to wield when he grew older, to combat the evil that was said to come with his birth. The royals chose such a blade above any other weapon because they believed there to be a dark parallel to it in existence, and they wanted their son to renounce the shadows.”

After another pause, I slowly tug Loinnir from its sheath at my side and give it a long look as it glimmers in the light of the sun.

A dark, parallel blade to my own… that sounds about right.

With a decisive breath, I look back up and put my sword away again.

“Thanks, Jameson,” I tell him with a nod, then I turn back to the direction we were headed. “Let’s keep going.”

—

It’s nearly sunset by the time I begin to feel the faint, familiar tingling on my skin that tells me the barrier is nearby.

“We’re close,” Marvin says to us, taking the lead. “It should be just through here…”

Pulling apart some of the brush in front of us, he beckons, and as I duck my way through, I feel the change…

But it isn’t gentle this time. Instead, I almost feel paralyzed– I have to force my way to the other side, and once I do, even then the feeling is reluctant to let up…

The sound of Jameson’s voice coming in behind me brings me back.

“I say, that wasn’t very pleasant,” I hear him say to himself as he adjusts his hat on his head, then he turns to me. “It’s even worse than when I left.”

As he finishes, Marvin enters behind us, and the three of us reconvene.

“I can see why Sam wants me now,” the boy states, his multicolored eyes flicking with worry as his voice lowers. “I just hope I can help…”

Before I can say anything to reassure him, the sky rumbles with low, rolling thunder, and it catches us all off-guard. Then, the sounds of panicked voices from not far ahead take our attention, and I get the feeling that we may have arrived just in time– though, just in time for what, I can’t be certain.

“Oh dear,” I hear Jameson murmur. Then he jogs ahead a few steps, turning back and bidding us follow him, concern glittering in his gaze.

Sensing the gravity of the situation, I run past him, up the path towards the main camp, and find myself staring.

What was the Hollow, so full of life and hope and diversity before, is now in shambles. As the rain begins to fall, I see collapsed tents all around the border of the clearing, and their inhabitants gathering around a few small fires scattered throughout the area. There are a few remaining shelters that haven’t fallen, but their size doesn’t permit more than a few people to be in them at once. And there’s an air of collective fear here, as if whatever happened struck this place unexpectedly and nobody was ready for it– and they’re unsure if it’ll happen again.

I shake my head as Marvin and Jameson finally join me.

“We have to find Sam,” I find myself saying. “Something terrible happened here.”

“Should we split up?” Marv asks me, turning to one side while Jameson turns to the other.

I nod. “Let’s meet back here once we find him.”

With that, each of us set off in different ways. I take the direction closest to the fallen tents, along the border of the way we came in.

After approaching the first and seeing no signs of anybody, I move along down the line, passing a few groups of younger community members huddled by their fires. They look to me as I pass, and I can see in their eyes that they’re afraid… they’ve never known anything but safety here, and this has shaken them to their core.

“Ungh!”

Immediately I look up from them and try to find the source of the noise. It definitely sounded like it was close by…

Not far away, I see human movement near one of the collapsed shelters. I rush over to it, and I see someone on all fours in the grass.

Falling to my knees as I get close, I reach down to them. “Are you alright?–”

I’m taken aback by surprise as someone I know looks back up to me.

“Jack?” he asks quietly, his eyebrows furrowed as if he isn’t sure whether to believe if it’s really me.

I get back on my feet and help him stand. “Chase? What are you doing here?”

After dusting the mud off his pants, he meets my eyes again. “I was just visiting Henrik, and then– wait, what are _you_ doing here?”

“Kind of a long story. I’ll explain everything in a bit, once we find Sam,” I tell him with a sigh, then my eyes widen a little. “Wait, Henrik’s here too?”

Chase nods. “Sam called for him after it happened. Said some people were injured by it, and he wanted to make sure everyone would be alright, so he reached out to the best apothecary he knew. And I happened to be with him at the time, so I tagged along.”

He lets out a heavy breath, his gaze falling to the tent on the ground beside us.

Getting a little worried, I take a step closer to him. “Hey, are you alright?”

“I… don’t know, honestly,” he answers with a bit of a nervous laugh, not lifting his eyes. “It’s just all come on so fast– this place, the magic of it. Everyone here has some extraordinary gift, except for me. I feel like I don’t belong here, like I shouldn’t have come.”

“Chase…” I say to him, and he finally looks up to me. “The whole point of this place is that you can belong, no matter where you come from. I’m sure Sam is happy to have a sharpshot like you join his ranks.”

After a moment, he gives me half a smile. “You think so?”

I nod, and am almost about to reassure him when another crack of thunder comes from above, cutting off the moment.

A pause happens, then he turns back to me.

“Hey, I can help you find Sam,” he tells me, nodding. “I can tell that whatever you’re here for must be pretty important.”

I find myself wanting to smile at him, so I let it happen. “Thanks, Chase.”


	9. A Stillness in the Rain

Together, Chase and I make our way around to other tents, searching the areas around each one for Sam.

“So,” I begin again as we make our way, remembering something he mentioned just now. “You said something big happened here… do you know exactly what it was?”

“I’ve only heard bits and pieces,” he answers, shaking his head. “Something about a blast of energy that passed through, and the barrier couldn’t stop it. That’s why it’s acting up– it’s been damaged.”

At first, I can’t imagine what must’ve caused something like that– an event strong enough to inflict damage on something so powerful– but then, my chest pounds with the strange pulse once again, and I realize.

Who else could it have been, other than my other half?

I pause for a moment and close my eyes. I have to fix this…

“Jack?”

I look back up to answer him, but then my eye catches the motion of someone trying to get our attention not far away, near one of the remaining few tents that didn’t fall.

“Marv?” I murmur, exchanging a glance with Chase, then running to meet him.

—

When we reach him, he greets us with worried eyes.

“What’s up? Did you find Sam?” I ask as Chase catches his breath beside me.

Marvin shakes his head. “No, but I did find Henrik. He’s in there treating some of the injured, and he told me he knows where Sam is.”

As he says the words, the apothecary emerges from the shelter, making sure that whoever’s inside is well taken care of before turning to us.

His eyebrows immediately raise when he sees me.

“Jack?” he says softly, and I can see that he almost wants to smile. “My friend, I never thought I would see you again!”

I give him as warm of a greeting as I’m able in our current circumstances and nod. “It’s good to see you again too, Henrik.”

“Ah, but– forgive me. You have come to seek out Sam, have you not?” he goes on, taking a few hurried steps between us, then turning back. “Come along. He should be this way!”

As the good doctor leads us across camp, the rain goes from a faint drizzle to bigger droplets, starting to get all of us wet. I can’t help but wonder what really affects the weather here…

We approach a bigger makeshift shelter made of a few tents put together, and I recognize this as the place where Sam’s used to be– near where we had the bonfire all that time ago. Now it seems almost deserted of most people, devoid of the life it once had.

As the four of us get closer, Jameson emerges from the folds of the entrance, looking to the sky, then seeing us and waving.

“If it’s Sam you’re searching for, I’ve found him!” he calls.

I dash ahead of the rest of the group, Marvin close behind me. Chase and Henrik follow suit, and soon the five of us are all together, standing outside the shelter.

“He’d like to see Marvin as soon as possible, along with Jack,” Jameson says, adjusting the brim of his hat.

Turning to each other for a moment, both of us nod. “Of course.”

—

We duck into the entryway of the community tent one by one– Marvin first, then me. At first, I can’t help questioning why he couldn’t just come outside to us…

But as soon as I see him, I know.

He sits up when he sees us, his eyes pained but still glittering with almost-joy.

“Jack, Marvin,” he greets us, clearly straining to not flinch in pain as he holds his hand over a spot on his side that he isn’t letting us see.

Immediately Marvin comes forward and falls to his knees beside him, trying to pry his fingers away, and after resisting for a moment, Sam gives up…

A patch of deep red stains his shirt, and it’s still growing.

“Sam,” the boy says quietly as the man looks away. “You’re wounded! You need help!”

“It's… nothing,” he argues, letting out another breath before continuing. “Just a scrape. The others… I can’t take Henrik away from them. They need him more than I do. I’ll be alright. I’ll heal.”

“Sam, you know that’s not true,” I tell him, my voice beginning to raise in alarm. “What would these people do without their leader?”

“Would you keep it down?” he begs, and I’m forced to stop. “I don’t want Henrik to know.”

“He’s not going to,” Marvin assures him, adamant about his stance on the matter and pulling a clear phial from his satchel, handing it to him. “Here. Drink this. It’ll heal you.”

“Marvin…” Sam starts, clearly not wanting to take it from him. “I can’t.”

The boy presses it into his hand. “I’m not taking no for an answer, Sam.”

After hesitating even more, he reluctantly undoes the cap and takes a sip, only drinking a small bit.

“Good,” Marv says to him, closing his bag again. “Even a little goes a long way. You’ll see.”

We both watch as Sam takes a few deep breaths, regaining his strength as his wound closes on its own. After a few moments, he looks up, and I extend my hand his way to help him stand. Once everyone is back on their feet again, the leader puts on his red cloak and adjusts it so that the crimson stain on his undershirt isn’t clearly visible.

Sam looks to each of us briefly, then bows his head and closes his eyes in shame.

“I’m sorry,” he tells us softly, shaking his head. “I wasn’t focusing on what was really important.”

He turns to Marvin and pats him on the shoulder, giving him a sad smile.

“In any case, it’s good to see you both,” he says after taking a deep breath and restoring his fighting spirit. “Jameson told me you were looking for me?”

I nod, gripping my sword’s hilt at my side. “Yeah, actually. It’s about Loinnir.”

Narrowing his eyes, Sam meets my gaze. “What about it? I’ve already told you everything I know.”

I take a bit of a breath– I was afraid he’d say that.

“Well, we were really wondering if you knew anything about another sword– its darker counterpart,” I explain, hoping that this will spark something in his mind.

He presses his eyes closed, as if he’s wracking his brain…

“I’m sorry,” he finally says to me after a pause. “I wish I could help you, but all I know is about Loinnir.”

Sam takes a step past me towards the entrance to the tent, but the words of my companion stop him in his tracks…

“At this rate, it might be easier to find the dragon than the sword,” Marvin mumbles.

There’s a long pause, then Sam turns back around to face us with a curious look on his face.

“Dragon…?” he whispers, shaking his head. “Did I hear you correctly?”

Not wanting to attract attention from anyone outside, both of us nod.

He comes closer.

“I only know one person who believes in dragons, and most call him a madman for doing so,” he tells us in a low voice. “He isn’t here– he lives alone on the very edge of the kingdom, about a day’s journey north from here.”

Marvin and I exchange a glance.

“Do… do you think you could take us to him?” I ask hesitantly. This could be as good of a lead as any…

Sam pauses, his gaze falling for a moment, then he meets my eyes again.

“Ask me again in a few days,” he finally says, taking a step back. “Right now, I have to restore hope and order here. Speaking of which…”

He smiles a little and beckons Marvin.

“Think you could help with the barrier?”

The boy nods earnestly, then follows him out of the tent. I’m left alone, and my fingers in my pocket find my folded-up sketch again.

There’s someone out there who might be able to help us solve this riddle… I can only hope that it won’t be too little too late.


	10. Coming Together

The rain beginning to lighten up, I step out of the tent again, and I’m greeted by Jameson, Chase, and Henrik as Marvin and Sam walk off towards the border of the clearing.

The three of them come around me as I approach.

“Is everything alright?” Jameson asks me, searching my eyes.

I nod. “Yeah. Sam and Marv are going to try to fix the barrier now.”

“I mean, with you,” the gentleman goes on, putting his hand on my arm gently. “You seem a bit disconcerted.”

At this, I pause, then sigh.

“It’s just…” I say quietly, looking down. “All of this, it feels like it was never meant to be. And I feel like it’s all my fault, because I couldn’t stop him from coming back.”

“All of… what, exactly?” Chase asks, and beside him, Henrik raises his hand to his chin, tapping his fingers pensively as if he’s wondering the same thing.

I shake my head a little, a sort of half-smile coming to my face.

“I guess now is as good a time to explain as any,” I murmur, turning back to them, inviting them to come back into the shelter with me. “C'mon. It’s a long story, and we might as well stay dry for it.”

—

After the four of us gather in the tent and get settled into sitting in a circle on the ground, I take a deep breath and begin, the sound of the rain droplets falling outside adorning my tale.

I tell them about my time in the mirror, how I used the power to watch over everything in the kingdom at once. Henrik and Chase seem equally awed by my experiences there, by how strange yet wonder-inspiring it was. Meanwhile, Jameson listens intently, as if he’s been wondering about what it must’ve been like in there ever since he’d first heard of such a thing.

Next, I explain how it came to break at my darker half’s hands. I tell them about my fear– how I’d never seen him despite being all-seeing for a while, meaning he’d somehow avoided my gaze for all that time, and how I still don’t understand how he did it. Then I mention his sword, and how I believe it to be the darker parallel blade to Loinnir that Jameson told me about before– at this, the gentleman’s eyes widen, as if he didn’t realize before what importance his anecdote had to me.

Lastly, I briefly expand on how I reunited with Marvin, and how we made a few discoveries together– about the mirror, about me, and about Scáth– before being found and brought to the Hollow by Jameson.

By the time I’m done, all three of them are wide-eyed.

“And to top it all off… he’s still out there somewhere. I know he is,” I finish quietly, looking away. “He’s not in my head anymore– he’s gotten strong enough to separate himself from me.”

“Good heavens,” I hear Jameson say silently to himself, his eyes glittering with worry.

“Jack…” Henrik says to me, sitting up on his knees now. “My friend, I… I would like to help you in whatever way I can.”

I look up to him. “What?”

“Me too,” Chase puts in, doing the same with a new look of determination in his eyes. “You’ve done so much, for all of us… I think it’s time to repay the favor.”

I shake my head a little. “But…”

“I firmly agree,” Jameson adds, giving me a nod and standing back up, bidding the others and me to do the same.

At first, I wonder where he’s going with this, but then, giving me a look with a glimmer in his eye, he bows to me, just like he did all that time ago in his home.

“It will be an honor to serve you again, Your Highness,” he tells me with a wink.

I can’t help but laugh a bit. “Please, just call me Jack.”

—

I spend the next couple of days here making the daily rounds around camp with Sam, and little by little, I can see him restoring the hope of this place. He’s seen to it that most of the injured are being taken care of, thanks to Henrik, and he’s also put Chase in charge of helping the others set up their shelters again. Marvin’s been hard at work restoring the barrier, and Jameson has been keeping everything else in check.

People look to Sam with sparkling eyes as he passes, and I catch them looking to me as well now…

After we do today’s rounds, I can’t help but jog up to him as he approaches the entryway to the community tent and get his attention.

“Hey, Sam?” I ask before he ducks in, and he looks back to me with a glow in his striking blue eyes.

“Yeah?” he answers, pulling his red hood off his head and shaking out his hair.

“I was actually wondering…” I start, hoping I don’t sound too anxious for an answer. “Could you show me and Marv the way to go find your friend any time soon?”

His gaze falls, but a smile crawls onto his face at the same time.

“I have been meaning to pay him a visit,” he tells me quietly. “I haven’t seen him in quite a long time.”

There’s a long pause, as if he’s reminiscing over the memories they must’ve shared. After the moment passes, he looks back up.

“If I can leave the Hollow in good hands, yes. I can take you to him,” he finally tells me. “I can’t guarantee he’ll be of much use finding this dragon of yours, but if you think it’ll help, I’m willing to bring you to him.”

A relieved grin emerges on my face.

“I do have to warn you, it’ll be no easy journey,” he goes on, stepping closer to me. “I suggest you get some good rest and help Marvin prepare as well. We’ll leave first thing in the morning.”

I shake my head a little. “Sam… I don’t know how to thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” he finishes, stepping past me and pulling his hood back up. “We have to find the man first.”

As he walks away, a flutter of exhilaration comes over me. I can feel that, whoever this man is that we’re going to see, he’ll get us closer to our answers.


	11. To Kingdom's Edge

It’s dawn when I feel Marvin stir at my side– the night was fairly cold, so he curled up against me in his cat form for warmth. The tip of his tail twitching as he awakens, I see him blink a few times, and I give him a gentle stroke before he looks up to me.

I smile a little. “Morning.”

After a few moments, he gets up on his legs and stretches out, then he shakes out his body bit by bit.

I sit up on my knees and let out a sigh. “Ready for today?”

He makes a small _mew_ in response, brushing up against me briefly as I stand.

Taking a look outside the tent, I nod.

“Here, I’ll give you some privacy,” I tell him, stepping out. “I’ll go look for Sam.”

—

It’s not long after I leave that I find him– he’s crouching in the area just outside, facing the sunrise. I almost don’t want to interrupt whatever he’s doing, but upon feeling my presence, he stands anyway and takes a deep breath.

“You’re ready then?” he asks me, turning my way. “Where’s Marvin?”

“He’s coming,” I answer, then I can’t help asking him my own question. “So who’s gonna be in charge here while you’re gone?”

He sighs. “Henrik’s going to keep taking care of the injured. Jameson and Chase make a good team– they can help make sure things stay up and running here. And if anything goes wrong, Eris will know what to do. It's… it’s all going to be fine.”

He looks away as he says the words, as if he’s trying to convince himself rather than me.

“Hey, it’s gonna be okay,” I tell him, trying to get him to look at me. “The Hollow will still be here when we come back.”

His eyes finally meeting mine, he gives me a nod, and Marvin comes up behind us, adjusting his satchel on his shoulder.

“Are we ready?” he asks, eager to start the journey ahead of us.

“Just about,” I say, then I turn back to our leader. “How about you?”

After taking one more deep breath, Sam nods again, and with that, we’re on our way.

—

As the sun continues to rise, we make our way through some coniferous forest that I’ve never seen before. Each way we could go looks all the same to me– but Sam seems to know where he’s leading us.

“So, Sam,” I can’t help but wonder. “Chase told me a little bit, but I was curious… what actually happened that hurt the Hollow?”

There’s a long pause, and he looks to his feet before turning back up to me.

“I was out riding at the time,” he starts. “It was like… some kind of shock wave. Spooked my horse into bucking me off– I landed on something sharp, and that’s how I got my wound. By the time I made it back, everything was chaos. I only wish I could’ve been there when it happened.”

I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like for him to come home and see the place he’d worked so hard to build in shambles…

“Everyone was okay though, right?” Marv asks, turning to him.

“Yeah, there were injuries, but nothing too serious,” Sam goes on. “Most of all, everyone was just shaken up by it. The barrier has protected us from nearly everything in the past, so to suddenly have it fail… it’s a scary thought.”

I keep quiet about my suspicions that my darker half was responsible.

Our leader pats the boy on the shoulder and gives him a smile. “But, with you around to help us fix the barrier, I’m sure we’ll have things back to normal in no time.”

Again, it sounds more like he’s trying to convince himself than anyone else…

I decide to change the subject.

“How did you meet the man we’re headed to see?” I ask him as we continue onward.

At this, Sam smiles a bit.

“I was much younger at the time. He’s actually the one who taught me how to find where the Hollow is,” he answers. “He knows these woods like the back of his hand, I’m sure, even though we’re still quite a distance away from where he lives.”

“And…” Marvin puts in hesitantly. “And is there any particular reason he lives so far away from anyone else?”

“He told me back then that he believed strange things came from the fog beyond our borders, and he set out to prove it,” Sam almost laughs. “But I think the real reason was that he got sick of being ridiculed for his beliefs among the townsfolk. They never really respected him, being the type of man that he is.”

I shake my head a little. “That’s a shame. I know what it’s like to be the town outcast.”

“Me too,” Marvin adds, his eyes falling.

There’s heavy silence for a while. I can’t help but hope this man won’t mind a few visitors after all this time…

—

By the time it’s nearly sundown, we start seeing signs of life. A few pathways through the brush worn down with time, a makeshift hunting target with a few handcrafted arrows stuck in it, some rope hanging from a few trees. I can tell we’re close.

“We’re almost there,” Sam informs us, taking a look around for himself.

Following one of the paths, he leads us further, and before long, I see a small wooden shack not far ahead.

One of the foreign-feeling thumps happens in my chest again at the sight.

This is it…

After making our way there, the three of us stand together at the door– Sam in the middle, Marvin and I on either side of him. Taking one more breath, our leader reaches up and knocks.

A few seconds of silence pass, but then…

Heavy footsteps come from the other side, shuffling closer and closer to us until–

The door creaks open slowly, and we’re greeted by a tall man with lighter brown hair and grey eyes, and there’s an old, long scar over his left one. He looks to us with reproach, but then, he recognizes Sam, and the warmth of familiarity softens his expression.

“Sam, mate,” he says quietly, with a strange accent in his voice. “It’s sure been a while since I saw you last.”

The two share a firm handshake.

“It’s good to see you again too, old friend,” our leader tells him, and he seems more at ease.

Opening the door wider, the stranger puts his hands on his hips.

“Who’re these two?” he asks, looking to both of us on either side of him.

“I’m Jack, and that’s Marvin,” I tell him, and Marv gives him a timid wave. “And… you are?”

He gives us a half-smile with his answer.

“The name’s Angus. Glad to meet you.”


	12. The Hunter

Our host lets us step inside, and I take a look around. There isn’t much to see– an old table and a few chairs set around it, some shelves with what must be personal trinkets on them beneath the single window. I peek into the next room to find a small bed tucked in the corner with a few blankets folded on it sitting beside a small fireplace, in front of which is an animal-shaped rug and a few places to sit.

“So…” Angus says, his voice pulling my attention back to him. He crosses his arms. “A rogue leader, a shapeshifter, and a prince seek out an old, forgotten hunter in the woods… bit of an odd bunch.”

My eyes widen a little. “How did you know…?”

He smiles and nods to my hip. “I know that sword, mate. I wouldn’t easily forget something that Sam fought so hard to protect back in the day.”

Then he turns to Marvin, whom he towers over, and smiles a bit. “As for this one, well, it was fairly obvious.”

—

As the sun starts going down, Sam heads out to look for some firewood, leaving me and Marv alone with our host. After preparing some blankets for us to sleep on, he comes back into the room, putting his hands on his hips.

“So… what brings you out here to the bush?” Angus finally asks, looking to each one of us. “Sam’s got an excuse. How about you two?”

We exchange a glance, then I take a breath and begin.

“Sam… he told us that you were the only one he knew that believes in dragons,” I start cautiously, and as I say the final word, he lets out a small sigh. Eager to make up for my bluntness, I keep going. “Marvin and I are actually searching for one, and we were wondering if you knew anything that could help us.”

Letting out a long breath, the hunter steps past us, pulling out one of the chairs from the table and sitting down with his elbows on his knees.

“Dragons…” he murmurs with a laugh, shaking his head before speaking up. “I’m afraid you’ve come to the wrong man, if that’s what you’re after.”

I narrow my eyes a little. “What?”

“Listen, I know you’ve come a long way, but… my dragon hunting days are behind me. I’ve sworn off it,” he explains, looking to both of us. “I’ve put myself in more than enough danger in the past, all in the name of proving something to the world– but I never did it.”

“So… they’re not real?” Marvin asks quietly.

After a pause, Angus looks up to him, a small grin on his face and a glimmer in his eye.

“I never said that,” he tells him. “They’re real, alright. I’ve seen ‘em. How’d you think I got this scar?”

He motions to his face, to the long line over his forehead, eye, and cheek.

Marv’s eyes widen. “That was… from a dragon?”

Angus laughs a little and stands back up. “It was a finicky one, that’s for sure.”

“So, wait,” I can’t help but wonder out loud. “If they’re actually real, then… why can’t you help us find one?”

He looks away from my eyes, as if there’s something he’s not telling us…

“… I can tell you what I do know about them, but that’s as much as I can do,” he finishes quietly after a long pause. “I’m sorry.”

The sound of Sam arriving outside with the firewood takes his attention, and he looks to each of us one more time before heading out the door to help him.

Marvin and I exchange a glance, and I let out a bit of a sigh.

“I thought he would have some answers for us,” I say softly, my gaze falling. “I was so sure of it.”

“He might still,” the boy answers, shrugging. “Maybe he’ll have something useful to tell us in the morning.”

I shake my head a little. “Let’s hope so.”

—

I spend the rest of the night helping the others set up for bed. Sam takes one of the seats by the fireplace, and Marvin curls up in his lap in his cat form, making a nest in his blanket.

Just as I’m about to settle in and pretend to sleep all night, I feel a small tap on my shoulder, and I look up to see… Angus, beckoning me to come with him somewhere.

Narrowing my eyes, I silently stand up and sneak my way towards the door, and he waits for me just outside…

Peeking out, I see him standing by a small bonfire of his own, wearing an old, ragged coat.

Slowly, I approach him, and he smiles a little.

“Nothing to be afraid of, mate,” he tells me, sitting on the nearby bench that he must’ve carved himself and bidding me join him.

I take my seat and turn to him, unable to help but be curious. “Why are you still awake?”

He shrugs. “Was around this time of night that I used to go hunting for 'em. Old habits… they have ways of resurfacing.”

I shake my head a little and meet his flickering grey eyes, and I can imagine all the wonders he’s seen just by looking into them.

“Listen, there's…” he starts, dropping his gaze to the ground and leaning forward. “There’s something I wanted to tell you. I felt like I couldn’t before, with the shifter kid around– the reason I’ve sworn off dragon hunting.”

I blink and raise my eyebrows. I knew there was more to this man’s story…

“My last expedition was… some odd years ago,” he begins, almost softly laughing again as he reminisces. “Up until then, I’d only had glimpses of the beasts… but I knew they were out there, here near the edge of our world. It was just a matter of finding them, of catching them… of hunting them.”

He shakes his head as he continues.

“Me, being the crazy bastard I was, I would set up these huge, elaborate traps during the day, and then I’d lay in wait come the night,” he goes on, smiling a little. “Dragons… they’re clever creatures. They had to have known I was there, known what areas to avoid. But, one night…”

His expression turns hard, and he closes his eyes as if he’s re-imagining it all.

“One night, one of my traps was triggered… by something big. Something beastly. I’d never seen anything like it…” he describes quietly. “Naturally, I went up to check it, and…”

He lets out a long breath.

“Sure enough, it was a dragon, caught in my ropes. But… it wasn’t struggling. Not much, anyway,” he tells me, still not looking at me. “I got closer and saw that it was trying to cut the ropes with its claws, but then, it turned its head to me, and…”

I can feel him trembling at the memory.

“It stared directly at me. Now, I don’t know exactly how much you already know about dragons, but some legends… they say they carry visions in their eyes. And this one gave theirs to me,” he says softly, his hand tightly gripping the edge of the bench as he recalls the images. “I saw destruction. I saw danger. Most of all, I saw… pain, for both man and beast. It was like… it was warning me what would happen, if our worlds were to cross.”

He pauses and sighs, facing down again and crossing his arms.

“I knew what I had to do. I cut it loose and let it go,” he finishes. “But before it flew away, it scratched me right over the eye, as if to make sure I’d never forget the lesson it taught me. Heh… I tell ya, I sure haven’t forgotten that night.”

Shaking his head again slightly, he finally looks back up to me.

“Ever since, I’ve sworn off hunting 'em. And I haven’t seen any since, though some of my old traps are still out there,” he concludes. “I do go to check them now and then, but they’re always empty. I figure the beasts have learned my ways by now.”

Looking up to the night sky, he lets out another breath.

“That’s why I can’t help you go looking for yours. I made a promise to myself that night to never disturb them again,” he finally explains to me.

My eyes fall to the ground as I take in his tale.

“Angus…” I find myself murmuring. “I don’t even know what to say.”

His mouth curves into another half-smile.

“I can give you some pointers if you tell me what kind of dragon you’re looking for, but that’s all,” he tells me, nodding.

Hesitantly I reach into my pocket and pull out my drawing, slowly unfolding it in the firelight.

“Do you know anything about this one?” I ask, handing it to him.

Taking it from me gently, it only takes him a matter of seconds to identify it.

He huffs. “You didn’t tell me you were looking for _that_ dragon, mate.”

My eyes narrow. “What do you mean?”

“According to every legend I’ve ever read, this one is special,” he explains. “It’s a guardian. It sits in a world separate from this one, watching over everything. No human being has ever found it, I’m afraid. Only tales passed down over eons and eons speak of it.”

I let out a tiny breath of awe as he hands the sketch back to me.

“A world separate from this one?” I can’t help but wonder, looking back down to the lines I drew. “Is that where all dragons come from?”

Angus nods. “That’s why I chose to live so far from the kingdom. If there was another world out there, I wanted to be close to it.”

I pause for a few moments as the words whirl around inside my head, then I fold the drawing again and put it away.

“Wow…” I can’t think of anything else to even say right now.

Grinning again, he stands up.

“I was actually going to make my way through the woods tonight, check on all my old traps,” he mentions, meeting my gaze with a glimmer in his eye. “Care to come along?”

I look back up to him, finding myself smiling, and I rise with him. “Sure, I’d love to.”

As we make our way towards the edge of the forest, he grabs an old spear from a nearby rack and slings it over his shoulder. I give him a confused look.

“You never know what you might find in these woods at night,” he simply tells me, almost laughing again. “Best to be prepared.”


	13. Man and Myth

We take our time making our way through the forest, and Angus leads me on a weaving path to show me his old traps. The netting has been worn out with time– I can imagine how easy it would be for a sizeable creature to free itself with it in such a state– but yet it still hangs on, the knots still holding strong after all these years.

“Up here’s the last one,” he tells me as we approach it.

Tied up between the branches of a few trees is probably the biggest and sturdiest trap of his we’ve seen so far. At the sight, I let out a small breath of awe– this was definitely made with the intention of catching something larger than life.

Seeing my reaction, Angus only shakes his head, and he takes a few steps forward, admiring his past handiwork. “This brings back some memories.”

I almost step up with him, but he holds out his hand, bidding me stop.

“I… I’m taking this one down tonight. No need for innocent creatures getting caught in it,” he tells me, turning back around and nodding. “You can head back to the cabin. I’ll meet you there in a bit." 

—

I take some steps backward– I’m a bit hesitant to leave him alone, but I trust that he knows these woods better than I do.

"Need any help?” I try before getting too far away.

He shakes his head again, facing one of the trees. “Nah. I put this bloody thing up myself, I can take it down.”

With that, he starts pulling himself up the trunk, clinging to it as he skillfully climbs into its branches.

After a few moments of watching him, I tear my eyes away and start walking back toward where we came from.

I shake my head a little as I think to myself. Angus has shown me the validity of his story already– I have no doubt in my mind that he can be trusted. He wouldn’t have any reason to lie about something that impacted him so closely…

Just as the house comes into view, I almost start to jog for it when suddenly–

A huge, beastly howl like nothing I’ve ever heard comes from the forest behind me, nearly knocking me off my feet and sending a jolt down my spine.

I whirl around, finding my breaths to be quick and shallow.

“Angus.”

Without hesitation, I set off sprinting. On the way back, a few roots threaten to trip me up, but luckily the path has been mostly worn in, so it’s fairly easy-going until–

I nearly skid to a halt, my hand reaching for a nearby tree to keep me steady as my eyes go wider than they’ve ever been.

Before me is a writhing bundle of scales and netting, scrambling wildly to try to free itself. In the moonlight I see the glow of two mighty translucent wings, the span of which must be at least twice as long as I am tall. They flap themselves rapidly as another unearthly sound erupts from the beast’s throat– whatever it’s ensnared in, it’s desperately trying to escape.

“Jack!” Angus’s voice shakes me from my awe, and suddenly I see him laying near the base of a tree at the edge of the clearing. “Over here, mate!”

Instantly I almost take off running for him, but I stop myself as a great, dark tail whips around between us, threatening to split either one of us in half.

Then the sound of several ropes snapping all at once, followed by the beast trying to shake everything off itself, takes my attention once again. Slowly it begins to turn and find its footing, until…

Two huge piercing green eyes meet mine, and I get a good look at this creature for the first time.

Its violet-black scales shimmering in the light of the moon, it begins to approach me, each step it takes more hostile than the last. It billows its dark wings up to make itself look bigger– but as it does, I can see that one of them has a major tear in it, and I can see it flinch in pain.

Looking back to the dragon’s eyes, I no longer see only fury in them, but… fear.

Angus calls out to me again. “Jack, be careful!–”

The creature whips its head towards him and lets out a beastly hiss in his direction, its eyes narrowing with the remainder of its anger.

I can’t help but let out a quick exhale. “What did you do to it?”

“I was trying to take down that old trap,” he explains, and I can hear him straining to try to sit up. “This one got caught in it before I could get it down– and its wing got torn on my spear.”

A low rumbling noise comes from its throat as it looks back to me.

“Adolescent male. Rare to see ‘em this size,” Angus goes on, looking down to his leg. “And as for the injury, I’d say we’re even.”

It’s now that I see a dark patch of red on his thigh and his pants-leg torn open with huge claw marks.

Looking back to the dragon before me, I swallow nervously, but then…

I notice it still has some of the net twisted around one of its back legs, some of the holes caught between its shining silver claws.

… suddenly, I get an idea.

Moving slowly so as to not startle it, I grab Loinnir’s hilt at my side.

“No sudden movements,” Angus tells me, and I nod.

Once I unsheathe my sword, I hold it forward so that the beast can see it fully. At first it seems hesitant to trust anything that comes near it with a weapon– understandably– but then, something interesting happens…

Taking a few steps backward into the clearing, it lowers itself closer to the ground and bows its head to me, closing its eyes.

A tiny breath of awe escapes me.

“Crikey,” I hear Angus murmur. “You don’t see that every day.”

Not giving myself any time to question it, I steel my nerves and take one step forward, then another, making my way around the creature’s left side. After a few moments, it opens its eyes again, keeping its glowing emerald gaze on me as I approach its hind leg.

Once I get there, I begin to kneel down without breaking eye contact. Its eyes are narrow now– it seems reluctant to trust me, but it doesn’t resist as I raise Loinnir towards its leg…

Very carefully, I slip the blade between the ropes and the dragon’s scales, then, with a deft swipe, I free it from the last of the net.

It blinks at me, then waits for me to move far enough away for it to shake the remaining material from its claws. Once I’m out of range, it turns itself in a full circle to make sure there’s nothing left.

I gradually begin making my way back toward where Angus lays on the ground, lowering Loinnir but not putting it away just yet.

“Jack…” I hear him say softly to me. I look to him briefly and see that he’s smiling. “I think you’ve made a friend.”

My own wonder starting to get to me as I watch the creature, I let my eyes go wide again. “How do you mean?”

“You freed him and earned his trust. That’s not the kind of thing a dragon forgets,” he explains quietly. “And it seems like that sword of yours is something special, too. One look, and he understood you. How’d you manage that?”

I shake my head very slightly. “I have no idea.”

Once I get close enough to him, I drop to one knee to get a closer look at his wound, but seeing me do this, the beast grows agitated again, growling and looking to Angus with malice.

“H-hey, easy,” I stammer, standing back up and raising my blade again. “He’s with me.”

As I say the words, Loinnir glimmers in the moonlight, putting the dragon at ease again.

Seemingly fascinated with my sword now, the creature inches itself closer to us, then bows its head to me again, as if asking me to do something…

Gently but with a barely-trembling hand, I rest Loinnir’s tip on the beast’s head between its eyes, and that’s when something incredible happens…

Originating at the contact point, one by one, its scales begin changing from black to cerulean blue, running across its whole body until all of it turns. Once it’s complete, the dragon opens its eyes again, giving me a gaze as if to say it thanks me.

“Well, well…” Angus says softly. “Poor thing was corrupted. That’s why he was so hostile at first.”

“Corrupted?” I can’t help but wonder out loud. “By what? How?”

“I’m not sure,” he answers as we watch the beast stretch itself out before us and shake itself out. “A dragon usually gets corrupted by its leader– they tend to live in groups. But this fella was all alone… and he’s far too young to be a leader.”

As he speaks, I see the creature attempt to extend its injured wing, visibly wincing as it does so. At the same time, Angus adjusts himself on the ground, letting out a strained breath as he tries to sit up.

After sheathing Loinnir, I kneel down again and pull his arm over my shoulder, slowly helping him rise to his feet. He flinches quietly as he stands on his wounded leg, leaning on me to take some weight off it.

“Do you think you can make it back to the house like this?” I ask gently as he adjusts his footing.

“I’ll be alright, as long as I can get it taken care of soon,” he answers, almost sounding worried. “You happen to know an apothecary?”

I laugh a little and shake my head. “I’ll do you one better– we came here with a sorcerer. He’ll be able to patch you up, good as new.”

He lets out a breath, unable to get his head around the concept, then he looks up to the dragon before us– it looks hesitant now, as if it doesn’t know whether to leave, or if it even can…

I meet its eyes again, then turn back to the hunter at my side. “What about him?”

He half-smiles again. “I’ll come back for him later. Probably can’t fly well in the state he’s in– he’ll need some attention too. I can take care of him.”

At this, the dragon cocks its head to one side, as if confused and a little scared…

I nod, meeting its eyes again.

“Stay here, alright?” I tell it cautiously, holding out my free leg and showing it that I still have Loinnir. “We’ll come back.”

It seems to take my word, and it retreats to the shadows between the trees, laying low to the ground.

I take a deep breath and turn back to Angus. “Ready?”

He nods and chuckles a little as we turn ourselves around. “This little adventure of ours is gonna take some explaining to the others, huh, Jack?”

I find myself laughing with him as we begin to make our way back. “It’ll make some story, that’s for sure.”


End file.
